


Strange Happenings

by OneWith



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Gen, it fits surprisingly well, just an in story meta on what i think dc would look like in the tma universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:20:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29276841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneWith/pseuds/OneWith
Summary: Beika was not an easy place to stay alive in.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 26





	Strange Happenings

Hakuba hated traveling to Beika. There was something in the air, or maybe it was the people themselves. There was something wrong here. The way a small spark of irritation would suddenly spiral, and anger seemed like such an easy emotion to grasp. He’d seen it at crime scenes, the murderer breaking down, saying they didn’t know what had happened. They had just seen the opportunity and their spouse was just so annoying. Complex, elaborate murder plots that had barely a one percent chance of working yet went off flawlessly. The violent crime rate was easily one of the top in the country, to the point where it took mass murder to even make the news. People’s loved ones and friends slowly disappearing and yet the population stays the same. He thought about asking some of the citizens what they thought but it was like they never even noticed. Death seemed tangible here and it dripped down the walls.

There was a dead body smack in the middle of the hotel he was suppose to meet a client in. The blood from the gaping neck wound already seeping into the carpets. Hakuba could feel the mounting pressure in the back of his head, his eyes being drawn to various innocuous things around the room that he was sure would lead exactly to the killer. Oh, and of course being drawn to the small 6 year old child currently standing over the body with bright eyes. What Beika murder scene would be complete without Edogawa Conan, running around helpfully pointing out flaws in suspects’ alibis or casually commenting on how the blood spray from the cut to the carotid arteries couldn’t possibly reach that far.

Hakuba could see everything, he may not have social skills (as he’s reminded every five seconds by his friends) but he didn’t need social skills to read a crime scene. People’s actions were clear, even when he wasn’t sure how he got that information. Even if he wasn’t sure what he needed to know. But out of all the people and crimes he saw, there were very few instances where he was at a complete loss. One of them being Kuroba and the other being the child currently running up to him smiling.

Wide eyes, chubby cheeks, and a height that didn’t even reach his hip. Sometimes, if he looked out of the corner of his eye, he’d swear it wasn’t a child. When he talked a little bit too old, pointed out a clue that was just a little too hidden, didn’t bat an eye at the hundreds of brutal crime scenes Hakuba knows he’s seen. There was too much that didn’t add up and Hakuba knew that something was wrong whenever he dwelled on it. Conan felt like a cheap imitation of a child sometimes, like if you were to look close enough all the random personality switches and fluctuating language would just scatter behind and leave what was actually there. 

Hakuba still remembered Sunset Manor. Where a situation that would surely end in their deaths was solved by an innocent suggestion. Why don’t we just kill each other, isn’t that what the killer wants? A few clever, clever manipulations and a complex plan. They left the murderer to Conan. Why did they leave the murderer to him? Eight brilliant detectives in their field and here they were faking deaths and stabbing each other at the whim of a kid who still watched Kamen Yaiba. He sees the exact same pattern at crime scenes just as clearly. The murderers falling into expertly laid webs. Manipulations that Hakuba could only see after the fact as what they really were. Criminals breaking down and confessing to crimes, lawyers and the justice system completely forgotten. Just the perfect confession and the perfect evidence, and the perfect trap every single time.

He knew Mouri wasn’t the great detective. He knew his mouth never moved and he knew there was a tranquilizer pumping through his veins (how he knew, he doesn’t know). But he can’t see the source, he can’t see who’s using the man as a puppet. He doesn’t need otherworldly means to make a deduction however. But when he looks at the very source of all his suspicions, they just seem to melt away, like there was never anything wrong. It wasn’t the feeling he got when he tried to prove Kuroba was KID. It wasn’t even the feeling he got at heists when the halls seemed to get longer and longer the more he chased. It wasn’t the feeling he got at the murder scenes in Ekoda. 

He was so sure Conan was behind it but all of that evidence disappeared whenever he actually looked at him. He could hold his suspicion as long as he wanted so long as he wasn’t with Edogawa. Because the longer he was with him, the more he was sure there was nothing wrong. That he was just a child, perhaps an intelligent and precocious one but just a little kid. Just a little kid, with a cheery smile proudly holding up an object with a “look what I found!”.

The still bloody murder weapon clutched in his tiny fist helped shatter that illusion.

He checked the time, 19:37.89, and went over to the detectives to begin relaying information he’d deducted from the scene. 

..................................................................................

It had been 3 hours and that meant it was getting time for the true show of this crime scene. He could see the suspects starting to get agitated, the endless questioning and refusal to release guests from the hotel despite the blatant law violation starting to get onto people’s nerves. One of the detectives had disappeared and Hakuba wasn’t quite sure where he’d gone. He lost sight of Edogawa awhile ago as well.

The crime itself was simple, almost every one was at this point. Very rarely did he ever get a challenge and when he did come across one, he got the seeping feeling that each one was more wrong than the next. He no longer found himself in simple cut and dry cases. Each new one had something off, the murderer themselves or the crime itself, and the growing crime scenes that had no logical reason for how they could have happened. They carried a deep, fundamental wrong that strained the edge’s of Hakuba’s steadfast belief in evidence. Like how his classmate could rip off latex masks to reveal a flawless disguise except when Hakuba looked closer he could swear it wasn’t latex that flashed red and fleshy under the moonlight. The edges of the mask looking too much like ripped skin. 

But there was nothing out of the ordinary with this crime scene, only with the people who had chosen to surround themselves with it. Hakukba was revealing his deduction of the husband using a concealed razor blade in a watch to slit her throat to the inspector right as he heard a scream echo from the other side of the room. He turned around to see Mouri slumped over, dramatically revealing the truth as one of the policemen acted out the scene with another. The crude approximation of the murder weapon pointing itself to the only suspect wearing a watch. Hakuba internally seethed a bit as he listened to the “Sleeping Detective” flawlessly reveal every piece of evidence pointing directly to the husband. Hakuba did suppose though that Edogawa had the slight advantage in this case, having his own set of weapons squirreled away in his watch. It didn’t lessen the blow to the ego of being stood up at a crime scene he should have been the one to solve, to know. 

As if on cue, the husband started confessing to everything. Forget lawyers and strategically trying to avoid the worst sentence you could, every murderer he’d seen at one of the child’s crime scenes had felt so trapped that it seemed like all they thought to do was confess and hope that the people around them sympathized. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn’t. Depends on what small inconvenience had spiraled into murder as it always seemed to do here. 

The man was dragged off in handcuffs and people were already starting to disperse. Happily chatting on their phones and stepping over the still present blood stains on the carpet as if they didn’t even exist. The body not even moved and left to rot on the ground, as if it’s removal would have irreparably damaged the flow of the investigation. Hakuba sighed and went up to the counter to cancel his reservation, the entire reason he’d been here in the first place. After all, the client he had been supposed to meet was the very same one collecting blood on the ground. He had had a strange premonition and assumed that meant this case would be interesting. In a way it was.

He took his phone out to call home and announce his early return and his eye caught once more on Mouri. Edogawa being carried out in his daughter’s arms as the man exuberantly threw his arms in the air and declared his hundred percent success rate. The effect was slightly ruined as he hip checked the door and stumbled into another guest. Hakuba supposes being tranquilized two to three times a week would eventually start to mess with you somehow.

..................................................................................

As Hakuba boarded the train back to Ekoda he breathed a sigh of relief at passing out of Beika. The lurking anger and violence that seemed to trail behind each and every person ready to snap slowly fading. The sense of being able to see clearer washing over him.

If he strained hard enough he swear he could hear another scream echo out from the city that was just behind him, and if he thought hard enough he could know it. But some things he could leave to others. After all, there was always at least one person around when people dropped dead in Beika.

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this instead of a meta. I was thinking about a crossover and realized how good Beika would fit as a slaughter/death domain and it spiraled from there. I had Hakuba as an eye avatar and Conan as primarily a death avatar with heavy web influences. I also hinted at Kaito who I thought would be a great spiral/stranger avatar with his heists and disguises. The more I thought about it the better dc fit into the tma universe lol


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